YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT

November 01, 2017

It’s part of a heavily customised mental baggage we all carry. What’s more, the truth about good food, and nutrition, cannot be conveyed in a manner comprehensible to each one of us on planet Earth. Not because of the subject’s simply astounding complexity, claims, counter-claims, fads and myths, but also inasmuch as our cerebral pathway is blocked by way of our coloured glasses — of enormously differing views of nutrition experts… on whom we depend for a dizzy blend of convictions.

We’ve, in the process, cultivated a habit of patronising a multi-billion dollar diet industry that has grown into a devilish ghost, or hoax, albeit most of us know that yo-yo diets don’t work. Worse still, they can cause harm.

Add to that another fact — the biological make-up of men and women has not changed through the centuries — and, we are in a quandary. Which makes it difficult too for us to perceive and, at the same time, accept, why there are thousands of diet books in the market — what with their authors, and publishers, laughing their passage to the bank. Not that we do not know the reasons: of objectives that are not too difficult to understand. Diets just don’t work, and we have an in-built system to search for a quick-fix — the more riveting the name, or commercial hard-sell, the better. So, there we are, and we know it all only too well. That most of the current fad diets are not only dangerous, but also ridiculous.

To bring home the point… straight. Edward A Taub, MD, a nutritional medicine-wellness physician, presents a revolutionary alley to nutrition, health, and well-being. He does not, of course, miss the essential component for the victual, and vice versa. His instruction is pure common sense. Food, he contends, is energy that nature provides to sustain us in good health during our entire personal human life-cycle — from birth to death. Says Taub, “We live in a diet-crazed culture; many of us are battling with our bodies. But, most of these weapons are just blunt knives. The only way to end the battle is to surrender to your body’s nutritional needs and wisdom. Your body knows exactly what it needs for nourishment, and it knows exactly how to achieve and maintain your personal optimal weight.”

He adds, “The way you think and feel about food, and the value you give to it, is not natural... We have learned to think of food as the enemy, and to see the refrigerator as a battlefield. But, food is not the enemy; it is your energy. Once you realise this, the refrigerator no longer has to be a battlefield; instead, it becomes a lively garden of health and vital energy.” In like manner, Taub shatters a host of food fables that perpetuates poor health and obesity. Besides, he introduces us to a wholesome, new world of natural foods — foods that literally revitalise our lives — including a Personal Wellness Retreat.

Taub’s composition is, in essence, a practical, integrated approach to good health. It combines the best of modern medicine with traditional spirituality, where health is mostly determined by our own personal responsibility, self-value, and reverence for life. To jump-start on such a voyage, Taub presents his eat-well-and-live-well programme — juxtaposed by his own prescription, the graceful dance of food energy in balance. He calls it the Food Energy Ladder. He urges us to adhere to its top five steps — 1. fruits, vegetables, and water; 2. beans, and legumes; 3. olive oil, nuts, and avocados; 4. whole grains, high-fibre cereals, and brown rice; and, 5. potatoes, dark grain breads, and pasta. At the same time, he solicits us to constructively restrict, with self-control, the not-so-healthy elements down the ladder, viz., 6. fish; 7. poultry; 8. eggs; 9. beef, pork, lamb, and veal; 10. low-fat dairy products; 11. regular dairy products; and, 12. candy-sweets.

He extols us to climb up the ladder, step-by-step, “so that you understand why the foods are categorised as they are.” He adds, “Remember that the higher on the ladder you eat, the higher’s the food’s energy. The greater the energy, the more fat you will lose.”